Well, props to him wherever he is. I'm not a huge Metallica fan but he stepped into some gi-normous shoes and did a great job. Except for the sonic diaster that is And Justice For All, once he got established you could finally hear BASS in Metallica. On top of that, dealing with all of Lars and Hetfield's self-centered BS. I remember reading a quote from him someplace soon after he left Metallica where he said something to the effect that staying with them would have been hazardous to his long-term health. I give a lot of credit to a guy that can keep that kind of perspective on things.

I believe that was back in 2003. Standing directly in front of Jason for his Voivod (even though I'm not big on them) and Ozzy sets may have been the highlight of the year for me. I believe Rob Zombie's bassist replaced him.

I don't know was Jason is up to these days. I think he still works with the surviving members of Voivod. I'd like to see him more active again, but perhaps he just wants to do more low-key playing and live a semi-retired lifestlye. That's cool too.

I believe that was back in 2003. Standing directly in front of Jason for his Voivod (even though I'm not big on them) and Ozzy sets may have been the highlight of the year for me. I believe Rob Zombie's bassist replaced him.

I don't know was Jason is up to these days. I think he still works with the surviving members of Voivod. I'd like to see him more active again, but perhaps he just wants to do more low-key playing and live a semi-retired lifestlye. That's cool too.

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Man... Time flies. Hard to imagine Newsted as semi-retired. I wonder if he shops at Armani, too?

He's still working with the Voivod guys on their new album but won't be touring - apparently he's still recovering from 'the accident' in 2006.

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Right. This is from Voivod's web site:
VOIVOD, who last performed live on August. 28 2003 during OzzFest in Florida, will return to the
stage on June 22nd, 2008 as part of the Heavy MTL Festival in Montreal
( http://www.heavymtl.com )

The band has issued an update regarding their upcoming live appearances.

"A lot has happened since the band's last live appearance. The band had taken time off to begin writing what would become the album Katorz. In April 2005 while the new album was in progress, guitarist Denis 'Piggy' D'Amour became ill before recording began and sadly died of colon cancer. It took awhile to recover from the sudden passing of Denis before Michel 'Away' Langevin, Denis 'Snake' Belanger and Jason 'Jasonic' Newsted could begin to assemble the songs from the demos and create Katorz.

Discussions of a tribute show and possible guitar players for it followed, yet it just did not seem right to perform without Denis, but time does help heal wounds and this summer Voivod feel it is time to perform the music Denis helped create once more.
On June 22, Voivod will perform in Montreal as part of the Heavy MTL festival and July 26th, 2008 in Calgary for the Monsters of Rock festival
( http://www.monstersofrockfestival.com ) with original bass player Jean-Yves Theriault ('Blacky') for the first time in 17 years.

Dan Mongrain from the Quebec band Martyr, a good friend of the band, will play guitar. Songs from the early catalogue will be the focus for these short festival sets. Jason Newsted is still very much part of the Voivod family and is working with the band on the new record (also constructed from the 2004 demos) along with Jean-Yves Theriault and Eric Forrest.

However, Newsted is unable to perform live at this point.
Denis and Michel are determined to play more shows in the future to celebrate Denis 'Piggy' D'Amour's legacy. Stay tuned

I will confess, when the story first came out, I thought his "injury" was a scam to get out of the trainwreck that Rockstar Supernova had become and avoid that tour, but it looks like he really was hurt. That's a shame.